Beyond the Fringe

"Beyond the Fringe," a comedy troupe which many see (due to its satirical content) as a forerunner to British television programmes That Was The Week That Was, At Last the 1948 Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus, was formed by Oxford University and Cambridge University students Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett in the early 1960s. The show is credited with giving many other performers the courage to be satirical and more improvised in their manner, and broke the conventions of not lampooning the government of the day or the Royal Family. However the show wasn't all that satirical, merely making fun of things-such as the war films-however even this was a step forward in comedy. Shakespearean drama was also took the mickey off. There was a number of songs in the show, mainly using music played by Dudley Moore. The magazine Private Eye originated at the same time and survived partly due to financial support from Peter Cook. The Establishment Club was also started around this time.

Arguably, "Beyond the Fringe" launched the 1960s' Satire Boom.